Electrician

It is estimated that Greece's labor market needs more than 300,000 workers from other countries, from dishwashers to chefs to carpenters, machine operators and electricians to web and software developers.

The tourism industry needs both unskilled and highly skilled employees: dishwashers, waiters, cleaning staff, but also chefs, spa therapists and front office professionals. 

Drawing attention to the ills and pointlessness of mass consumption, the Goethe Institute (4 Omirou, tel 210.366.1000, goethe.de) has invited its in-house "Mr Fix-It" Yiannis and expert tinkerer Roland, a car electrician and DJ, to show people how to mend sundry household items that no longer work rather than throwing them away.

Hermi, a family-run business based in Celje, supplies more than 50 world markets with its lightning and surge protection systems, cable trays and ladders, and mounting systems for solar plants.

Within the scope of a balance training, workers and electrical technicians of an electricity distribution company in the eastern province of Erzurum are playing volleyball on top of 12-meter-high poles.

"Playing volleyball on top of the poles is difficult but enjoyable," a worker told Demirören News Agency on Sept. 7.

Two female senior managers run a local electricity company in the Mediterranean province of Kahramanmaraş, tending to the needs of all power issues in the rural areas of the city.

Zahide Yılmaz, the chief operator, and Melek Paköz, an occupational safety specialist, climb up the province's electric poles and repair them whenever they need.

A fire that broke out at a high-voltage power station in western Attica on Sunday night did not have any serious impact on the atmosphere, according to a team of Environment Ministry inspectors that visited the site on Monday, but several other problems were noted.

The Attica Tram Electricians Association on Tuesday announced a four-hour work stoppage from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Wednesday "since it does not see any substantial solution to the problems."

In a statement, the association bemoaned a series of shortcomings, including the operation of the tram telematics system, which has remained "problematic" for the last 22 months.

Thousands of self-employed professionals, such as lawyers, accountants, engineers, electricians, doctors and taxi drivers, have installed card terminals to comply with legislation, but hardly ever use them.

A bar owner at Kolonaki, central Athens, had his electricity cut off due to high unpaid bills. He was approached by an electrician who offered to reconnect the bar every Friday evening, so the bar could open for the weekend, and disconnect it again every Monday, to avoid detection - all for 800 euros a week.

Plumbers, electricians, bars, restaurants and cafeterias are among the professional groups that will be forced to install card terminals and start accepting credit and debit card payments by the end of June.